The April Lunduke Journal Pledge drive has ended! Thank you to everyone who pitched in to help The Lunduke Journal continue to provide ad-free, Big Tech Free journalism!
The Lunduke Journal would not be possible without your support.
Seriously. Thank you.
-Lunduke
The German Sovereign Tech Agency paid half a million dollars to create
"Rust libraries and tools" for Arch package management. One question: WHY?!
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From Red Hat to The Linux Foundation, the majority of the Open Source world is moving towards Al assisted programming. And now Linus Torvalds is "vibe coding".
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A quick heads up: The DRM-Free, MP4 Downloads for Lunduke Journal shows are live for 2026! Plus: The popular $89 Lifetime Subscription deal is back through the end of January!
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Ads are filling the entirety of the Web -- websites, podcasts, YouTube videos, etc. -- at an increasing rate. Prices for those ad placements are plummeting. Consumers are desperate to use ad-blockers to make the web palatable. Google (and others) are desperate to break and block ad-blockers. All of which results in... more ads and lower pay for creators.
It's a fascinatingly annoying cycle. And there's only one viable way out of it.
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Those in power with openSUSE make it clear they will not allow me anywhere near anything related to the openSUSE project. Ever. For any reason.
Well, that settles that, then! Guess I won't be contributing to openSUSE! 🤣
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I took December mostly away from my tech and did a lot of thinking about things. Figured it was worth sharing here. Also, new episode of the podcast is out.
https://retropunk.substack.com/p/the-2026-experiment-or-refining-my
Are You Going to "Cling to Traditional Linux"?
Note: Grok Responds to Prompt for "Old School" Distros (below)
[Poll] What Linux Distro Will You "Embrace for the Future"?
5 Best Linux Distros for "Old School" Preferences
Based on your criteria - prioritizing reliability, meritocracy over ideology, avoidance of cutting-edge changes (e.g., Rust integrations in kernels like Fedora's experiments), and stability without unnecessary innovation - here are the top 5 Linux distros that fit an "old school" mindset. These emphasize proven, C/C++-based components, community-driven development focused on functionality, and minimal bloat. Rankings are based on current stability, user-friendliness for legacy hardware, and resistance to trendy overhauls, drawn from 2025 reviews and community feedback.
I've noted for each when it would feel most familiar to Windows 7 users (e.g., via classic desktop environments like Cinnamon or Xfce, which mimic the taskbar/start menu layout without modern touch gestures).
1. **Linux Mint ...
I’ve got the flu (or something else yucky) and need to take the day off tomorrow.
But I don’t really have a normal “boss” to email. Heck, all of you are sort of like my collective boss.
So I’m emailing you:
Boss, *cough cough* Lunduke is out sick tomorrow.
Which means no new shows on Wednesday. Hoping to rest up and be back with new shows on Thursday.
If you’ve missed any shows over the last few weeks, now’s a good chance to catch up.
And feel free to grab one of those fancy-shmancy $89 Lifetime Subscriptions while you’re at it. That won’t make my flu go away any faster… but it definitely won’t hurt.
Unrelated note: Buying stock in Nyquil might not be a bad idea. I think I’m about to increase their profits.
-Lunduke
A few super-quick Lunduke Journal housekeeping updates:
The Lunduke Journal’s email server has had a few hiccups — if you had sent an email to “bryan at lunduke.com” in the last couple days, and have not received an expected response, send the email again.
The 2026 MP4 Downloads page is up and going! If you are a subscriber (of any kind) you can find details on how to gain access on the Subscriber Perks Page.
The popular $89 Lifetime Subscription deal is back through the end of January. Standard Monthly & Yearly subscriptions are also discounted (50% off). Grab ‘em while they’re hot!
That is all. Back to your regularly scheduled nerdiness.
-Lunduke
What follows are the top 5 most viewed Tech News stories, published by The Lunduke Journal, during 2025.
Presented in descending order of views received, starting with the most viewed.
[Links are to Substack, but all stories are freely available on several platforms.]
Installing Linux Software Just Got More... Gay [Nov 24, 2025]
Linus Torvalds Tells Google Dev His “Garbage Code” Should “Get Bent” [Aug 10, 2025]
Leftist Activists Demand Removal of Ruby on Rails Founder, DHH [Sep 26, 2025]
Microsoft’s Goal: Replace “Every Line of C” with Rust by 2030? [Dec 26, 2025]
Use Firefox? Mozilla Says it Can Use Your Data However it Wants. [Feb 27, 2025]
And, just for the sake of posterity, here are the next most viewed stories, 5 through 10.
Wikipedia Made $184 Million in 2025, Spent $3.4 Million on Hosting [Dec 5, 2025]
Cloudflare Rewrote Their Core in Rust, Then Half of the Internet Went Down [Nov 19]
Ubuntu’s Rust GNU Utils Replacement 17x Slower & Buggy [Sep 16]
GNOME Foundation Discusses Refusing Funds from Framework Computer [Oct 17, 2025]
Python Says Discriminatory DEI Policies More Important Than $1.5 Million Dollars [Oct 28]
Of those 10 stories… 4 of them were not reported on by any other major Tech News outlets. And 3 of the other stories were first reported by The Lunduke Journal (and then picked up by other journalists).
That’s… wild.
We know that The Lunduke Journal gets more social media traction and views than any other “Mainstream” Tech Journalism outlets (including the ones which claim to have “millions” of followers).
While we don’t know the current exact viewership numbers of the other major Tech Journalists out there, based on all available numbers it would appear that these are among the most viewed Tech News stories from any publisher.
Period.
Which means that this list of “Top Tech News of 2025” is about as close to definitive as we’re likely to get.
While we’re at it, for the sake of massive transparency, here are detailed statistics for The Lunduke Journal for last month. (Something the other big Tech News outlets would be terrified to reveal.)
Here’s some Lunduke Journal stats for December, 2025:
14.9 Million views (or listens) during the last month (December).
151,224 free subscribers (not including audio podcast feeds).
2,196 new free subscribers on the primary platforms.
342 shows, in total, in 2025.
$0.00 (zero) taken from any corporation.
December is, typically, the most quiet month for Tech Journalism. Fewer big stories. Lots of people on vacation. “View” numbers are, almost always, significantly lower than a typical month.
Despite that, The Lunduke Journal had a pretty stellar month in December of 2025. Second biggest month of the year (only slightly behind the previous month, which set multiple records), clocking in at just shy of 15 million “views”.
I’ll take it.
Total Free Subscribers also saw pretty decent growth, considering it was December (“the quiet month”), of over 2,000 new subscribers. Now topping 150,000.
A huge thank you, as always, to the amazing subscribers to The Lunduke Journal.
None of this work would be possible without you.
-Lunduke
